Ada Yonath is focusing on protein biosynthesis, antibiotics hampering it, human diseases associated with ribosomal mutations, and origin of life. She directs the Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structures at the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), where she got her Ph.D. and is currently a professor. She did her postdoctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago. In the 70s, she established at WIS the first structural-biology laboratory in Israel, which was the only one in the country for almost a decade. During 1986–2004 she headed the Max Planck Research Unit for the Structure of Ribosomes in Hamburg, Germany in parallel to her WIS activities. Among others, she is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the United Kingdom’s Royal Society, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Vatican); Japan Academy, Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and Italy’s National Academy of the Sciences, and holds honorary doctorates from more than 45 universities worldwide. Her awards include the Israel and Harvey Prizes (2002), Massry Prize and Paul Karrer Gold Medal (2004), Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2005), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2006), L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008), Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2008) and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009).